Account

An account is a tool which records, for a given aspect of economic life, (a) the
uses and resources or (b) the changes in assets and the changes in liabilities
and/or (c) the stock of assets and liabilities existing at a certain time; the
transactions accounts include a balancing item which is used to equate the two
sides of the accounts (e.g. resources and uses) and which is a meaningful
measure of economic performance in itself. (SNA)